US Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 per year

I don’t get it.

That’s over 5 times the number of annual firearm homicides, yet no one seems upset about it. Continue reading “Help with a blind spot” →

Source: Marginal Revolution.

I agree with the observations in Tyler Cowen’s note.

For more than 20 years as a proposal writer I contended with dreamers who claimed that proposal writing soon would become automated. They had a point: Most winning proposals contain chunks of re-usable content. If only those chunks could be stored in a database and made easy to retrieve and re-assemble, the dream of push-button proposal writing could be achieved. Simple.

And yet every project I ever saw that attempted to create the dream application failed.

Continue reading “Commercial applications for ChatGPT” →

The two nice ladies who think Trump is still President and there are TWO different militaries, one run by Trump (good) and one run by Biden (bad). And then there is the lady towards the end who dies not believe that there is a war in Ukraine and that the refugees Klepper met in Hungary were all actors is indicative of the videos shared by Mr. Roberts from Ukraine.

Happy Hump Day, Y’all!

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35568868/tom-brady-says-retiring-football-good

Sports is not a topic discussed here. However, the retirement of, arguably, the best player in the history of football is significant.

I was never a fan of Brady’s. I did respect his game. And respected it even more after he left New England and proved how good he was and the Bill Bellichek needed Tom more than Tom needed him.

The headline of my post says three eras. The other two? Ozzy Osborne is ending his touring career. And Dr. Phil is ending his TV show.

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war U.S. media has promoted the narrative that Russia’s economy will be wrecked by the conflict. Now — seemingly all of a sudden — the IMF says:

Russia’s economy, hit by sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, has proved sturdier than expected, too: The IMF’s forecast foresees Russia registering 0.3% growth this year. That would mark an improvement from a contraction of 2.2% in 2022. And it’s well above the 2.3% contraction for 2023 that the IMF had forecast for Russia in October.

Continue reading “Not Winning One Way, Not Winning Another” →

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

HooRah! Virginia has a current budget surplus of $3.6 billion. I’m all for giving all of it back to taxpayers, but if only 1/3 comes back, that’s good, too.

Given that there are 6.6 million adults in Virginia, my share would be a little under $200. Twice that with my wife’s share, or about 1/10 the price of the new sofa we’ve been eyeballing.

I should think the General Assembly can do us right over such a pittance.

Joe Biden not long ago insisted that sending tanks and fighter jets to Ukraine would be the start of World War III. Now he has promised to send tanks and there is talk of sending F-16s.

If conditions in Ukraine are as Doug Macgregor describes them, Joe Biden will be throwing good money after bad.

Continue reading “A Sunk-cost Fallacy” →

Source: Moon of Alabama.

Recent reports that battlefield conditions in Ukraine are unfavorable to the prospect of Ukrainian victory are inspiring some commentators to explore the possibility of a U.S.-led invasion to end the war decisively. Moon of Alabama thinks a U.S. invasion is unlikely.

I hope MoA is right.

(33) JORDAN PETERSON: “Chat GPT and AI WILL TAKE OVER” – YouTube

I first became aware of Chat GPT a couple of weeks ago in a conversation with my son who is a Harvard graduate with a PhD in History from Columbia University. He has made his living as a wordsmith with speech writing gigs in Congress and later at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Currently he prepares position papers and speeches for clients such as the Gates Foundation. He makes a very good living doing this work.

With that as background, he tried out Chat GPT and – like Jordan Peterson – was blown away by what it can do. Literally astonished. He believes it is a world changing technology that will do to the intellectual and professional work force what automation has been doing to production workers. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, writers, designers, artists, movie makers, you name it – anybody who works with their mind will see the value of their work evaporate when AI can do it as well or better in seconds.

With this game-changing technology coming down the pike, we really need to be thinking of a new economic paradigm. The current work for money system is not going to cut it for much longer. Some form of Universal Basic Income is where we need to go. We will need some very smart people in government to see us through this transition without kicking over the apple cart.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3834307-tyre-nichols-arrest-footage-what-we-know-so-far/

The outrage over the police beating of Mr. Nichols is correct from all sides. It is a terrible incident that, hopefully, will assist in reforming policing across the country. Please note I said REFORM, not defund or abolish police forces. They are a necessary part of helping to maintain the peace in our country.

What I have noticed is that the outrage seems much louder from those on the Right who showed no such anger with the beating of George Floyd a couple of years ago. Why is that?

Is it because the five officers in Memphis were all Black?

Discuss among yourselves.